Family-owned Windmill Taverns to open first new pub in a decade
Windmill Taverns will launch its fifth site in south east London next month, with the opening of Mc & Sons, an Irish pub serving Thai food.
The new venue, in Southwark between Blackfriars Road and Borough on Union Street, will have space for 80 covers and average spend per head is expected to be £15.
It is the first new opening for the group, owned by the McElhinney family, in 10 years.
The pub will feature reclaimed furniture, wooden benches, and recycled pub pieces sourced from all over the UK and Ireland. There will also be a living memory wall with family portraits telling the story of the McElhinney family.
The south east Asian twist comes thanks to head chef Lailar, wife of Johnny McElhinney, who will bring her knowledge of Thai food to bear on the menu.
Typical dishes will include the house special of marinated spicy pork salad as well as a selection of stir fries, noodles and curries, packed full of flavour, priced from £8.50.
The McElhinney family is originally from Maynooth in North County Kildare, Ireland.
Jack McElhinney opened a pub in Kinnegad in the 1970s, before moving to London with wife, Berna, and their three children Joanne, Johnny and Ryan to open their first Irish boozer in London.
Johnny, Ryan and Jack established Windmill Taverns Group in 1998 and added The Ring on Blackfriars Road, Jacks Bar on Isabella Street (an homage to the original), the Windmill on The Cut, and the Kings Arms on Roupell Street. In 2014 Joanne returned from America to join the family business alongside her siblings.
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